Michael McDowell (Independent)

I now regret that I did not add my name to the supporters of this legislation because the case that has been made by Senator Keogan and other supporters of the Bill seems to me to be a very strong one. Furthermore, I am of the view that given it is Government policy to go down this road, the question we really face this afternoon is one of timing.

I fully accept the Government is entitled to assemble its own evidence. Maybe the particular limits of concentration of various substances and all the rest of it in the Bill are worthy of review but I was here last night - I think the Leas-Chathaoirleach was here too - and a complex Bill was put forward by Senator Lynn Ruane in relation to parole in the criminal justice system.The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, came in and said he wanted six months to think about it because there were things in the Bill which - I agreed with him - needed to be carefully looked at and a few corners to be looked around. However, the 18 months the Government is asking for now is too much. I have been in government. I know what happens if, 18 months into your term, you begin to address your mind to legislating for the matter and send it over to the parliamentary draftsman's office and get the heads of the Bill put before Cabinet and go through the pre-legislative scrutiny process, which was not there in my time, and the like. All those things take time. The real question is: is there a will to take any protective steps in this matter?

I am also conscious of the nature of the advertising for some of these drinks. There is the suggestion that "Red Bull gives you wings" and all the highly clever, suggestive cartoons saying that drinking this product can get you to do things which otherwise you would not or could not do. That is a very strong subliminal message that you are missing out on something or that if you are depressed or feel inadequate, there is a solution and it is in a can, so go off and have it. There are also the sponsored events - young women and men with beautiful bodies leaping off cliffs into magnificent seas in Acapulco and all the rest of it - including Red Bull-sponsored events. However, we do not talk about the obesity and the people who would kill themselves if they jumped off those cliffs and who are affected by consumption of these products. Soapbox derbies are also to be seen sponsored by these manufacturers on TV channels.

There is a strong commercial push aimed at the suggestible and the young to consume these products. If the Government wants to accumulate evidence or to put flesh on the exploratory undertakings which it gave in its programme for Government, it should get on with it. There is a big Department of Health here. There is a HSE to run the hospitals, but the Department of Health is there to decide on matters of public health of this kind and on policies in that regard. If the Department of Justice can ask for six months, as it did last night, it is a bit of a smack in the face with a cold cloth for Senator Keogan and the others who have signed this Bill to say it will next come back before this House for consideration in 18 months' time. We could do better than that. That is all I want to say.